The Press-Dispatch

October 10, 2018

The Press-Dispatch

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A-2 Front Wednesday, October 10, 2018 The Press-Dispatch yeah, it's that fast! net edition Z M www.PressDispatch.net/Subscribe The Press-Dispatch. No matter where you live. BUILDINGS Continued from page 1 Halloween CONTEST Decorate a light pole on Main Street, Petersburg with your scarecrow. Individuals, businesses, schools or civic organizations are invited to participate. e scarecrow needs to be displayed by Oct. 26 for judging. All art should be removed by Nov. 16. Contact City Hall at 812-354-8511 to make location arrangements. S P O N S ORE D B Y $100 PRIZE will be awarded on Nov. 2 Union Comm. VolUnteer Fire Department OCTOBER 20 • 7PM EDT Union Community Church Center 3082 N. CR 850 W., Hazleton WE WILL BE HAVING: Trunk treat OR Costume Contest Most Original, Scariest, Cutest, Most Realistic and Best Group Fire trucks for kids to touch and ask questions, Games, Food, Bonfire and Prizes! By Andy Heuring A Knox County man was arrested after a two-county crime spree on a four-wheel- er Monday morning. A man believed to be Joe Williams, of Knox Coun- ty, but who gave multiple names to police, was arrest- ed at 10 :04 a.m. Monday near Mt. Olympus by Pe- tersburg Police Chief Chuck Baumgart. Chief Baumgart said it started Monday morning as a report of a suspicious per- son, who had stopped at a residence on CR 200 N. on his four-wheeler, and went to the door asking the resi- dents for gasoline. Williams told the resident he was a coroner from Princeton and three boys had drowned that morning, and he was look- ing for one of them and need- ed gasoline. When the wom- an who talked to him at the door went to talk to a fam- ily member, she said Wil- liams stole her cigarettes and lighter and fled on the four-wheeler. She called police and gave them a description of him and then started follow- ing him from a distance and relaying her position to po- lice. Chief Baumgart, Pike County Deputy Mike Willis and Conservation Officers Ken Tincher headed that way. In the meantime, Wil- liams stopped and talked an elderly man in a white pick- up truck into driving him to Princeton. Chief Baumgart said the truck entered onto Highway 65 near Union. "We had a great witness following them at a distance and giving us good descrip- tions of the truck and where they were," said Baumgart. He was able to catch up to them and pulled the truck over near Mt. Olympus. Baumgart said the driv- er of the truck told him as soon as Williams got into his truck, he turned up the ra- dio and grabbed the driver's cellphone and started mak- ing calls on it. Chief Baumgart said State Trooper Jim Dotson hap- pened to be in the area and heard the description of Wil- liams, and realized he was the man they were looking for in a four-wheeler theft from Knox County on Sun- day. Baumgart said it is be- lieved Williams stole a four- wheeler and then went to a horse farm, got into their arena and started driving their tractor around. He used the tractor to drag the arena. "They said he 'did a great job of dragging the arena,'" said Baumgart. He then let their horses out and the horses got onto a golf course and caused be- tween $20,000 and $ 30,000 worth of damage. Baumgart said Williams had been re- leased from jail a day earli- er and apparently stole the four-wheeler on Sunday, and after the horse farm in- cident, rode the four-wheel- er all night before showing up in Pike County. Baumgart said Trooper Dotson picked up Williams and took him to Knox Coun- ty to face numerous charg- es. He has not been charged in Pike County. Man arrested after two-day crime spree Live raptors highlight Patoka River NWR Appreciation Day The Patoka River Nation- al Wildlife Refuge will cele- brate the "Year of the Bird" in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the Migrato- ry Bird Act at the annual Ref- uge Appreciation Day. The event, hosted by the Friends of the Patoka River NWR and the Patoka River NWR, will be on Saturday, Oct. 13, from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. at Wirth Park in Oakland City. Featured morning pro- grams are all about birds. At 9:15 a.m., the Indiana Falconers Association will present a program on falcon- ry and do a hunting demon- stration with a live goshawk. At 10 :45 a.m., the Interna- tional Crane Foundation will talk about the federally en- dangered Whooping Crane, a fall and winter visitor that can be found on the Refuge. At 11:45 a.m., there will be a live Birds of Prey pro- gram presented by the Har- dy Lake/Dwight Chamber- lain Raptor Center that may include a bald eagle. In addition to the morning programs, at 1 p.m. attend- ees will have the opportuni- ty to take a bus tour of the Refuge, or take a car cara- van for a guided 1.5 -mile hike to the new Buck's Marsh boardwald. Throughout the day, vis- itors will be able to explore more than 20 booths that showcase nature, the envi- ronment, and conservation. Children's crafts will take place in the shelter house and food will be provided by the Eagles and Duck's Un- limited for purchase. The event and parking is free and open to the public. In case of inclement weath- er, the event will be held in- doors at the park. Please come and enjoy the nature of Southern Indiana at its best during Refuge Appre- ciation Day! Downed power line closes Highway 57 A semi-truck's trailer cover pulled down a power line, limbs and broke off a utility pole onto Highway 57, just north of Petersburg. It caused traffic to be blocked for about 90 minutes at about 11:30 a.m. Monday. Petersburg Police Chief Chuck Baumgart said a semi-truck had just left IPL and the trailer cover be- gan to raise and got caught in the power lines and tree limbs. He said Duke employees responded and were able to get the road back open in about 90 minutes. "They responded quickly and did a great job," said Chief Baumgart. Traffic backed up a long distance, as there was nowhere to route the semi-trucks around it. Baumgart said the traffic backed up so far to the north that a Daviess County Deputy Sheriff came over to check on how long it was going to last. this they will lower the (tax) rate? " said Bishop. "Yes, that is an option for them to lower the tax rate. We don't want them to do that," said Rawlins. "As we have seen, bids can come back significant- ly higher than the engi- neer's estimate," said Coun- cil Greg Willis, referring to the Events Center at Prides Creek. Moments before Rawlins began her presentation, the Park Board informed the council their bids came in about $200,000 higher than the estimate. She said they were warned to plan for about $700,000 and they could still handle the project at a maximum of $730,000. "If you drain those funds will you be able to live in your budget? " asked Coun- cilman Todd Meadors. Rawlins said even if they were limited by property tax caps that would lower the li- brary's tax revenues, "I have funds to be able to cut and stay with in budget. . . I feel very confident in my ability to manage my budget." She told the council she planned to return to them in February to get permission to "use these funds." "I stand before you today to take those questions from you today so when I take bids in February we will be ready to go." She added their hope was to get the project competed in a year. No action was taken on the matter by the council. Park and Recreation Pres- ident Jan Hollis gave a dif- ferent report to the county council about a proposed Event Center at Prides Creek. He said they had 13 con- tractors at a bid meeting, but only three submitted bids. Two were more than $1 mil- lion, the lowest was Jasper Lumber at $ 873,000. How- ever the county council had given approval for the proj- ect with a maximum cost of $ 670,000. "As you can see it is quite a bit more," said Hollis. He said Ashley Willis, Ex- ecutive Director of the Pike County Economic Devel- opment Corporation, had worked hard with Jasper Lumber to cut costs of the building. She also was able to get numerous donations including about $18,000 of steel. "As you will notice we are about $140,000 short. Hollis said one of the road blocks they ran into was the requirement to have a sprin- kler system. He said they had been told if the capac- ity was less than 300 they weren't required to have a sprinkler system. How- ever because they plan to serve alcohol in the build- ing it would require a sprin- kler system. He said this is a problem because the water pressure isn't high enough to supply a sprinkler system. So it would be expensive to get enough pressure. Hollis said there is the possibility they could get a variance if they installed a fire hydrant. "I want you to know a lot of people spent a lot of time really trying. You will no- tice a gap of $140,000, but the board feels like the re- ality is $200,000 and some think $250,000," said Hollis. "We have done every- thing we know to do and it just isn't working," Hollis. Councilman Meadors said, "I appreciate your time and effort. Originally I vot- ed for it if it could be done for the $ 670,000. During the meeting I voiced con- cerns about general care of the park. I said if we move forward I would like to see things done so the park didn't suffer because of the building." Meadors said he recently went through the park and it looked beautiful. "I was still disappointed with the upkeep of the park. Look- ing at the park I could tell tennis courts hadn't been used in a while. . . The bath- rooms were nasty and show- er house bad. There are big gaps and holes under the sinks. I go back to the original point, before we spend a bunch of money on a build- ing there are still a lot of things that need to be tak- en care of," said Meadors. Councilman Bishop said when these concerns were raised before the project was approved, several business- es made donations of more than $50,000 to help with those improvements. "So it isn't a one-or-the-other situ- ation," said Bishop. "We have $ 800,000 in the budget. Why are we not spending that to take care of it now? Money isn't the issue on the maintenance," said Meadors. No action on the matter was taken by the council. In other business, the council voted to approve a $5,000 additional appropri- ation from the Refuge Rev- enue Sharing fund to pur- chase new more advanced heart monitors for the each ambulance. They also vote to pay the Pike Family Court Refer- ee salary 100 percent out of the general fund. That sal- ary previously was paid by the state, but a case study found there wasn't enough case load to warrant the state paying for it. When that happened, they began using various funds other than the general fund to pay it, but were told by an audit- ing firm they needed to re- duce the amount they were paying out of the Title IV D probation fund ,because the referee's work load was less than 27 percent on children cases. The next council meeting is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, November 13. THEFT Continued from page 1 had still not started and Ry- an Knepp was able to get in contact with Kennedy, who told him the block contrac- tor had cancelled on him three or four times. Knepp then contacted the block company who said they had not been paid and were going to repossess the blocks they had delivered to the site. Kennedy said he would send that company his deb- it card, but when Knepp checked with the block company, they said Kenne- dy's card had no funds avail- able and they repossessed the blocks that hadn't been used on August 7. Capehart's affidavit states that he talked with represen- tatives of the block compa- ny, and both of them said the false statements regarding payment from Kennedy and his acknowledgment that he never had funds to pay for the block led them to believe that Kennedy "simply took the Knepps' money without ever intending to finish the basement." By James Capozella A Loogootee man was ar- rested Thursday evening on drug charges. Clayton Ryan Coleman, 40, of 12108 E Private Road #510 N. Loo- gootee on drug charges af- ter a search of his vehicle after he was spotted by Pe- tersburg Police Officer Jar- ed Simmons. Officer Sim- mons was on routine patrol at approximately 12:04 am when he saw a white Chevy Trailblazer pull into the First Christian Church back park- ing lot near the side door. Simmons spoke with Cole- man and determined that Coleman he was under the influence of methamphet- amine because his breath- ing was labored, he was sweating abnormally and his pupils were fixed and di- lated and unresponsive to light. Coleman's speech was rapid and slurred as well, ac- cording to the report. Simmons was given per- mission by Coleman to search the vehicle and was assisted by Pike County Sheriff Deputy Mike Willis. Coleman said that if any- thing illegal was found, it could be confiscated but not to arrest him, claiming it may have belonged to a friend he gave a ride to ear- lier. During the search, Sim- mons located a red Eagle 20s cigarette pack that con- tained a small zip lock bag with a crystal-like substance that field-tested positive for methamphetamine. There was also another plastic bag containing four rolled mari- juana cigarettes, according to the report. The cigarette pack these items were found in matched the brand of cigarettes Mr. Coleman was smoking, that was laying in his passen- ger seat along with his cell phone and wallet. Coleman was then arrest- ed, placed in handcuffs and taken to the Pike County Jail on charges of possession of methamphetamine and mar- ijuana and maintaining a common nuisance, accord- ing to the report. Loogootee man arrested on drug charges Thursday

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